The 'quiet' new Bestwood council estate with lovely neighbours

Residents on a brand-new council housing development in Nottingham have expressed their delight, having recently moved into the properties. Tenants have started moving into 100 new homes across three new-build developments in Bestwood and Top Valley.

The homes are the latest to be completed on the council’s behalf as part of the Building a Better Nottingham programme. They are let at what the council describes as affordable rents to people with a proven housing need on its waiting and transfer lists.

Two of the sites have been built by Lovell Partnerships and one by Countryside Partnerships, part of the Vistry Group. The homes are at three different sites – Eastglade in Top Valley, the site of the old Eastglade school, Beckhampton in Bestwood, at land off Beckhampton Road, and Ridgeway in Top Valley.

Get the latest news straight to your phone by joining us on WhatsApp

Some residents at one of the new estates described the area as ‘nice and quiet’ and said they were ‘over the moon’ to be offered new properties. Susana Cardoso, 38, joined the waiting list five years ago when her daughter was born and was desperate to find a new property before having her son, who was born in December.

She was ‘extremely happy’ to move into her new two-bed home off Beckhampton Road in November last year. She said: “It’s great. I like everything, really. I was ecstatic when we found out we were going to live here because I used to live in a studio flat so I was desperate to move because I had another baby on the way.

“I was over the moon.” Ms Cardoso, who used to be a support worker, highlighted that she finds the rent ‘a little bit expensive’, however. She said: “It’s a little bit expensive for a council house, but compared to what the market is going for, it’s a reasonable price.”

Afeen Kaky, 37, lives nearby and commended the house’s ‘very nice’ garden. She said: “We moved in in November and everything has been great.

“I was in a flat above Victoria Centre for one year and, because we have a baby, we needed a house so my husband kept applying every Friday.”

Another mother living on the estate, who wished to remain anonymous, only moved in two weeks ago, after being homeless for four months. She said: “It’s a nice and quiet area.

“The houses are really nice as well and what I like most about living here is the people, there are lots of families.” Patrycja Kujawska, 41 and who works for the HMRC, also moved to the estate in November after being on the housing list for six years.

She said her new home is ‘lovely and different’. She said: “I didn’t expect to get a house like this because of how long I’ve been on the list and some of the older council properties can be in a quite bad state so we were very happy.

“When we received the email that they offered me this property I went on Google Maps to see where it is and I couldn’t find it. My partner then found out it was on the site of an old school and we went for a drive around here and thought it was great.”

A total of 106 new homes were approved for the former Eastglade School site in February 2020. The development consists of 23 one-bed flats, 63 two-bed houses, and 20 three-bed houses

Patrycja said her two-bed house is spacious, however, she would have preferred more storage space. She added that her previous rent in St Ann’s was just over £80 a week – she now pays double.

She said: “The rent is quite high but we are managing. It’s a very quiet area compared to where we used to live before, even though it still classifies as a building site. Even though we live further away from the city centre now, we still have access to shops like Aldi and Tesco so it’s not a problem.”

When construction is completed across all three sites next year, almost 350 new homes will have been built and let to families and individuals on the council’s waiting list. Work is also underway at a fourth site at Padstow, also in Bestwood, on the site of the former Padstow school and its playing fields.

Cllr Jay Hayes, portfolio holder for housing and Labour ward Councillor for Bestwood, said: “I’m delighted to see these new houses being made into homes by people who have waited a long time for them. What we’re doing at Bestwood isn’t just building new homes, it’s building new communities that everyone who lives in the area will benefit from.”